The Price
by Ellie Marsy
Summary: Jasper doubts his reasons for joining the Civil War after a discussion in History Class.


Hey folks! Anyway, this one is a little longer than my usual fanfics. I realize that some of my Civil War facts may be a little screwed up, but I did intentionally over-exaggerate to make the Professor seem like more of a jerk!

Warning: Confederate soldier bashing ahead! No offense! Also, my history knowledge sucks! Thank God for Wikipedia!

Synopsis: Jasper doubts his purpose for joining the Civil War after a heated argument in American History class.

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns the Twilight universe.

* * *

Jasper sighed as he watched the hands of the clock ticking painfully slow. He and Edward had arrived thirty minutes early for their American History class in order to escape from the pure chaos of thoughts and emotions of teenage high school students. He growled in frustration as he twirled one of his golden locks on a pencil. The Cullens had recently moved from Forks and it was their first time in their new high school. After taking all their past American History classes together, Jasper told Alice to take Physics instead. He could tell that the only reason she persisted in taking the subject was to be with him; and Alice was obviously getting tired of the subject. One of the reasons why he wanted the class to start soon was to get it over and done with so he could be with her. He took another frustrated look at the clock.

Edward cleared his throat loudly. Jasper was suddenly aware that his mood was starting to affect Edward.

_Sorry._

The door to the classroom finally opened, letting in a small group of loud teens. They had been discussing the football team's new uniforms. They immediately stopped when they saw Edward and Jasper. Edward closed his eyes and Jasper felt his irritation at their thoughts. Jasper winced at the lust coming off the girls. The boys in the group stared at them incredulously, as though they weren't supposed to be there. They settled to a series of seats at the head of the class, away from Edward and Jasper, who were at the back.

Jasper leaned toward Edward. "Is it bad?" he muttered in a speed the humans couldn't hope to hear.

Edward shook his head. "I'd actually be worried about those people if Alice and Bella discovered their thoughts."

Jasper snickered. The Cullens were still new to the school so naturally, the students were still getting used to them being around. It was the fourth time that day that Jasper had been assaulted with lusty stares. Bella was still getting accustomed to all the attention; it was her first time in a new school after Forks. She vehemently prevented Renesmee, who already resembled an adolescent, against going, insisting it was safe for her to go first.

Within minutes the classroom was filled with people, their voices melding together in a loud buzzing noise. Edward was visibly strained and Jasper sympathized with him, having to endure the thoughts of young lusty girls and self-obsessed boys all day.

The history teacher finally came into the room, causing the students' discussions to drop to low murmurs. Their new teacher was a short, irritable-looking man. He wore horn-rimmed glasses that game him a bug-eyed look and his toupee poorly disguised his bald patch. He carried a thick history tome with much difficulty and dropped it onto the teacher's desk, stopping his students' hushed giggles.

"Hello, kids. For those new to the school this year, I am Professor Burke. This semester we will be covering..."

Edward leaned closer to Jasper and spoke so only he could hear. "He's irritated because thought his bag would be better with a slushie in it."

Jasper raised his eyebrows. _Emmett?_

Edward chuckled. "Apparently the guy's a real dick."

Jasper bit his tongue to stop from laughing out loud. _Nice._

"... And lastly we will be discuss the American Civil War. We will be discussing the Confederacy's disadvantages in its position and stratagem which eventually led to their downfall."

"Ouch", Edward muttered.

_Bite me._

Jasper's family was worried first at letting him take lessons involving the war he had taken part in as a human; but after he got over the shock of the Confederacy's loss, Jasper found it much easier to study it. He even occasionally joked about his status as a war veteran.

"Now who hear can tell me what the leading impetus was for the War?"

Jasper's hand was up so quickly and silently, it took Burke a while to spot it. "Yes, Mr. uh...-"

"Hale."

"Mr. Hale?"

"It was the secession of the southern slave states from the Union after President Lincoln's campaign against the expansion of slavery in 1860. The Union saw it as mutiny."

"Excellent."

"Know-it-all," Edward snickered.

_Bite me again._

"As we know, the Slave states that seceded from the Union eventually formed the Confederacy. The Confederacy was founded on the belief that the white man and the negro were not equals. As the Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens put it, -The cornerstone of the new government rested upon the truth that slavery is the negro's natural and normal condition," Burke started scribbling down notes on the chalkboard in an ostentatious script that looked like a horrible attempt at calligraphy. "Now the Civil War had officially started after the Battle of Fort Sumter in 1861."

"Ooh, you fought there, didn't you?"

_Shut up, it was two years before I was born._

"The Confederacy had a very loose hold on its constituent states. While slavery was their leading and uniting cause of independence, one of the leading causes of its downfall was its own government. For one thing, their constitution focused primarily on the progression of government rather than the internal welfare of the individual states. It was the states-rights advocates that appealed against the formation of the Supreme Court of the Confederate States."

Jasper couldn't recall much of the political occurrences in Texas when he was a child. He vaguely remembered his father being a central part in the town meetings, but other than that he had the sense to keep away from the business of adults.

"Another major contributing factor to the Confederacy's downfall was the severe lack of civil liberties. The constitution actually imposed a domestic passport system that limited travel within the South's borders. Any citizen caught disobeying the system or straying too close to Northern territory was arrested."

Jasper suddenly flashed on images of men in uniforms storming into his town. He saw the war through the eyes of a naive child. He never bothered to ask what was occurring in the North, he only acknowledged the war when the soldiers came straight to his family's house.

"But the major reason would be the ideal of the people. The individuals themselves were motivated by all the wrong reasons. They were twisted into fighting for all the wrong causes and focusing on the wrong issues that left the Confederates completely drained of military power. The Confederates were lacked any sense of prudence or true morale."

Jasper was snapped out of his reverie back into the present. He felt a slight twinge of irritation as Burke's words sunk in. He raised his hand in another fluid movement. "Excuse me sir, what do you mean by the Confederates lacking morale?"

Burke's face contorted into an ugly grimace, before composing himself as he replied. "Well maybe it's not that they lacked morale, it's that they lacked the correct sense of it. The Confederate constitution put a false idea of the war into its soldiers to force them to keep fighting. When in reality, if you look at their true position and purpose for fighting, it was truly a lost cause."

"So are you saying that the Confederacy fought for a lost cause?" He bit back a low snarl that rumbled in his throat.

"Easy..." Edward muttered.

"From the start, slavery was never going to hold out. The President of the United States banned it himself and their Constitution was based upon loose and poorly comprised laws that put the transport of slaves over the welfare of its own citizens," Burke's tone was getting deeply sour. He eyed Jasper demeaningly.

"But what do you have to say about all the men who volunteered to fight?" Jasper's tone was getting equally harsh. His agitation was slowly growing and would be enough to make the class start a riot.

"I'm not exactly sure what you mean, Mr. Hale."

"How would you describe the morale of the men who volunteered themselves to fight for the Confederacy?"

"They voluntarily fought for slavery. I personally would describe it as a bit of a foolish attempt."

Jasper's anger spiked dangerously and Edward felt a noticeable change in the emotions in the room. "The Confederacy soldiers fought for a personal cause that they believed was greater than that of the Constitution."

"Jasper, cool it," Edward hissed.

Jasper ignored him. "I think you're neglecting the fact that several young men fought only for the safety of their families. They did that voluntarily, despite what it meant about their views on slavery."

"Well okay then, Mr. Hale," Burke's nostrils flared and his tone had become downright derogatory. "Why don't you tell me about what you truly believe the brave Confederates were fighting for?"

Jasper stood up in his seat looking triumphant and almost patriotic while challenging Burke. "They fought for the love of freedom and for their own ideals of courage despite what your narrowminded views claim."

Burke's mouth dropped open. He looked as if he was ready to take off his coat jacket and challenge Jasper to a fist fight. "Hundreds of little boys- children, as a matter of fact, with no idea of the true horrors of war not defending but abandoning their families, leaving their elderly fathers and mothers and young siblings behind to be ruthlessly slaughtered. And at what cost? To chase some false idea of glory only to lose the war? In what twisted sense of the word would you identify that as courage? I would call it recklessness, stupidity even! What do you think that they were fulfilling some destiny as great heroes? Look where they ended up!"

To the other students Jasper merely stared at the professor, but Edward could see how Jasper was visibly struck by his words. He opened his mouth as if he were going to say something.

"And excuse me Mr. Hale, but did you actually fight in the Civil War?"

For one wild moment, Edward thought Jasper was going to tell the truth. Underneath their desks, he stomped on Jasper's foot in an attempt to snap him back into reality. Suddenly becoming aware of his surroundings, Jasper averted his gaze to the ground before shaking his head slowly.

"I thought so... And for the record, my 'narrow-minded views earned me a Masters' degree in American History from Harvard," he adjusted the collar on his shirt, proving who won the conversation.

Jasper sat down slowly, his gaze still fixed on the ground. The rest of the class stood transfixed at the argument. Burke continued with the lesson, carrying an air of victory about him. Edward watched Jasper carefully. His thoughts were blank throughout the whole lesson.

The hour went by quickly and once the bell rang, Edward was the first out of class, towing Jasper along with him. Professor Burke shot them a derisive look before they left.

______

The hallways were already packed with students. As soon as they left the classroom, Edward spotted Alice and Bella waiting anxiously by their lockers. Alice ran toward them at a pace that was slightly faster than a human would guess she was capable of. Bella followed and locked hands with Edward. She gave Jasper a comforting smile and Edward clapped him on the shoulder before they left him and Alice alone.

Alice pulled him into an embrace, ignoring the stares of the students around them. "Are you okay? I saw the whole thing."

Jasper pulled back to look into her face. He smiled half-heartedly. "I'm fine."

She looked deep into his eyes and stroked his cheek. "No... You're not. C'mon. You've already made the decision to ditch class today."

Alice grabbed his hand and pulled him with her.

______

Alice and Jasper walked through the forest along the path they usually took to their new home. Edward had already informed Carlisle about what happened, who was furious when he heard and bent on Burke's resignation.

They walked in silence most of the way. Alice usually didn't press the matter until Jasper was ready to talk about it, but the fact that he barely seemed to have reacted unnerved her. She looked into his eyes at the same time he looked into hers. She smiled comfortingly. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Jasper shook his head. "There's nothing to talk about."

"What that man said... he has no idea what he's talking about."

They continued to walk in silence for a few minutes when Jasper suddenly laughed humorlessly.

"What's funny is that I don't think I even remember the exact reason why I joined the war in the first place."

"You did it because you wanted to prove something of yourself."

"I think I remember doing it because I wanted to be like those brave soldiers. I remember having that far-flung heroic fantasy. I had those same aspirations in Galveston, and look where I ended up. It wasn't more heroic deeds that I found that night. My fellow soldiers probably assumed I was murdered and left in a ditch. At what cost was I fighting? In both wars? Greatness was the very last thing I achieved. "

Alice suddenly stopped in her tracks. Jasper looked at her, confused. He was taken aback when he felt anger growing within her. She looked up at him and for a while she looked like she was going to pounce on him. Her eyes were harsh and her mouth was twisted in frustration.

"Jasper... I really wish that you wouldn't be so stubborn sometimes."

"A-Alice, I-"

"What happened with Maria- that was never who you were meant to become. It wasn't your fate or your destiny. I believe that it was the price you had to pay to become the man that you are today. It was the price you had to pay to meet me... And if you saw even half of the man that I see every day, you would agree that he is the greatest man I've ever known."

Jasper was speechless as he took both Alice's shoulders in his hands.

"Don't let the word of some balding old man tell you what you are. You are a hero. You saved me and that makes you my hero."

He smiled. After more than fifty years together, Alice still found ways to make him love her even more. "That's all that matters," he kissed her softly on her lips and hugged her tight. He felt her grow slightly limp as a vision came. She giggled.

"And by the way, if you're wondering about some sort of revenge against Professor Burke, don't worry. Edward and Emmett already have that covered."

Jasper chuckled. He held her close and they became oblivious to the rest of the world. He bathed in the love she washed over him. "I love you," he whispered softly. It still awed him at how someone like Alice could love someone like him.

As though she heard his thoughts, she laughed. "I love you too, Jasper."

* * *

Hope you enjoyed! My twelve-year-old brother helped me with the history part. :)

P.S. : I'll be writing a companion fic to this one about how exactly Edward and Emmett will plan revenge against Professor Burke. :)


End file.
